The cost of cardiac stents in India is set to increase by nearly 2% after the country’s drug pricing regulator permitted manufacturers and importers to adjust prices in line with inflation.
In an order issued on March 27, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) directed companies selling coronary stents at prices below the government-mandated ceiling to revise their rates based on a 1.74% rise in the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for 2024.
On the same day, the NPPA also allowed pharmaceutical firms to increase the prices of scheduled drugs listed in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) by 1.74%, in response to changes in WPI.
Following this revision, the maximum price of a bare metal stent will now be Rs 10,692.69, while drug-eluting, biometallic, and bioresorbable vascular scaffold stents will be capped at Rs 38,933.14 per unit.
The NPPA has warned manufacturers that any violation of these price caps will result in them having to return the excess charges along with interest, as per the provisions of the Drugs Prices Control Order, 2013. Additionally, retailers and dealers have been instructed to visibly display the manufacturer-provided price list at their business premises.
Cardiovascular diseases remain a major health concern in India. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, heart attacks claimed 32,457 lives in 2022, marking a 12.5% increase from the previous year.
Apart from stents, the NPPA has also established ceiling prices for different types of Ringer’s lactate injections and an injectable combination of piperacillin and tazobactam.
Ringer’s lactate is an intravenous solution used to restore fluids and electrolytes in cases of dehydration or blood loss. Meanwhile, the piperacillin-tazobactam combination is commonly prescribed for bacterial infections, including pneumonia.
